Protest: “I AM GREEK AND I WANT TO GO HOME”
On October 16, 2012, in Ads , Press Releases , by tasostheo

The Pioneers F.P.K UK in consultation with the Independent Movement for the return of Greek art «I AM GREEK AND I WANT TO GO HOME », invariably invites ALL to devote some of their time, next Saturday 20/10/2012 to unite with her, their voices for the return of the Parthenon sculptures where they belong. In Greece, the history and the people of …
Venue: Courtyard of the British Museum – London
Time: 12:00 to 14:30

It’s been 206 years of absence of the Parthenon marbles from their motherland, Greece, for this we need to return. The time has come to live up to the values ​​we all share and contribute as Greeks in the universal struggle for their return to this little piece of land located in the capital of Greece.Read the rest of this entry »

October 17, 2012

Graham Bishop has just released the latest in his series of Commissaire Pierre Rousseau Mysteries, called Return to the Parthenon. Much of the story is based around the marbles, that were lost at sea in the wreck of the Mentor off the coast of Kythera

It is available to buy as an e-book from Amazon. You can read the first chapter on the author’s website.

When HMS Mentor sank off the island of Kythira in 1802, 17 crates of sculptures prized off the Parthenon on the orders of Lord Elgin went to the bottom of the sea. Later they were all salvaged and taken to England. Or were they? Did the islanders save some of the sculptures themselves and conceal them on the island before the salvagers arrived? Why is an Italian diving team now searching the wreck? Pierre Rousseau and his Greek colleagues become involved in investigating what could be the find of the century. Returning lost scuptures to the Acropolis Museum in Athens would create a sensation. Or is all just a hoax to attract more tourists to the island?

Something that seems to happen often in Britain today (& i presume many other countries), is that when new artefacts are discovered, great efforts are made to ensure that they are saved for the nation, that they can be kept in the area where they were discovered, and that at all costs, they must not leave the country to a foreign museum or collector. When another country (whose artefacts have ended up in Britain) makes any sort of move to requests their return, this is decried as being a terrible example of “cultural nationalism“.

So – why do we not want to share our own stuff, but enjoy borrowing everyone elses?

Art, Antiquities & War: Is Our Obsession to Posses Art Above the Law Lecture Series
Keri Douglas
Friday, October 19, 2012 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM (EDT)
Washington, United States

Event Details
Marc Masurovsky, editor of plundered-art.blogspot.com and co-founder of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project will discuss the merits and challenges of the current legislation (S.2212) being considered in the U.S. Senate that potentially would give full immunity for any cultural object regardless of origin, whether licit or not, to enter the United States for cultural display without fear of being the subject of a legal claim. The proposed bill also exempts a small category of objects that were “taken” under Nazi rule—the so-called “Nazi exception”. At stake are the challenges that foreign lenders face in light of S. 2212 as well as potential or actual claimants seeking the return of their looted property.Read the rest of this entry »

BBC journalist Andrew Marr in this piece about his History of the World series highlights Athens as being one of the five most significant places in history. In addition to this, he makes the point, that despite, or perhaps because of, the current economic crisis, the time is right for the British to return the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece.

12 October 2012 Last updated at 09:50Five of history’s most important places

Trying to pick the most significant places in history is not an easy task when there are so many contenders. But History of the World presenter Andrew Marr has narrowed it down to five.

Africa’s Great Eastern Rift Valley

Running through Tanzania and Kenya, this is where the human story really begins, the earliest signs of Homo sapiens and our predecessor hominids, and it’s therefore where we should go back to when thinking about that great original migration out of Africa, and across the rest of the world, which happened 70,000 years ago.Read the rest of this entry »

If you talk to a group of lawyers who believe the return of the Elgin Marbles could be brought about by legal action (as I have done), and each one that you talk to will have a different idea of exactly how it can be achieved – in terms of which court, which jurisdiction, and which points form the basis of the case. One fact remains though – Italy argued for a long time with many of the big US museums for the return of looted artefacts – but only started to see any results once they had initiated legal proceedings against them. Whether or not legal action is aimed at winning the case in court, it can be a powerful tool for bringing people to the negotiating table with a more serious mindset – taking the case seriously rather than ignoring it in the hope that it will go away.

This new book by Greek Australian lawyer Kathryn-Magnolia Feeley gives her perspective on the legal issues involved.

Feeley’s Legal Argument For the Return of the Greek Marbles
By Stella Tsolakidou on October 13, 2012 in News

Australian lawyer Kathryn-Magnolia Feeley offers her own approach to the issue of the return of the Parthenon Marbles from London to Athens. Her ideas will be officially launched Oct. 14 during her book presentation in Canberra.

The author of “How The Greeks Can Get Their Marbles Back- the legal argument for the return of the Parthenon Marbles ” is an expert on human rights law and has worked as an archaeologist in Greece before taking up her lawyer profession.Read the rest of this entry »

October 10, 2012

I am a bit confused by this story – not least because, it is not at all clear that the Mona Lisa was ever removed from Italy without permission. As with many such claims, comparisons to the Elgin Marbles fail to see the uniqueness of the Parthenon Sculptures case – in that they were part of a building, as well as part of a greater whole – and therefore specifically designed to be seen in the context of the Athenian Acropolis.

Further to this, the whole argument that these should be returned because they are like the Elgin Marbles fails to note that the Palermo Fragment of the Parthenon Frieze was loaned to Greece with great reluctance by the Italian Museum authorities & had to be returned in March 2010 once the loan term ran out.

At the same time, it appears, at least from the article, that Italy’s National Committee for Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage has made a formal request to France – it seems odd that such a thing can have happened with relatively little prior news coverage, for such a well known artefact. At the same time though, if a formal request was made, issues are raised of how Italy can manage to raise one so easily, while the Greek Government has not made any sort of official formal request for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures since before the Athens Olympics.

I can see very little chance of France taking this request seriously – unless Italy comes up with a huge amount of more compelling evidence (none of which currently exists, to the best of my knowledge).

Italian campaigners have collected more than 150,000 signatures calling on the Louvre Museum in Paris to hand over Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to its “home city” of Florence.

The National Committee for Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage says it has made a formal request to the French Culture Minister, Aurelie Filippetti, for the world’s most famous painting to be returned to the Uffizi Gallery, where was displayed briefly a century ago.Read the rest of this entry »

Some of the 825 stolen objects returned to the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul in July, with the assistance of the British Museum and Ministry of Defence, were saved by a London-based philanthropist.

The British Museum’s Middle East curator, John Simpson, said the philanthropist offered to acquire the objects for the Afghan museum if the British Museum could “advise on legality and process” and act as an intermediary.Read the rest of this entry »

October 8, 2012

Christies is auctioning plaster casts of various panels from the Parthenon Frieze. From the information given, it is unclear whether these are a first generation cast (or more probably a second or third generation cast) of the originals.

You can view more details on page 79 of the e-catalog for the auction (linked to from this page). There are also copies of some sculptures from the Acropolis that I noticed in the catalogue.

Christie’s is selling more than 350 items from James Perkins’ collection at Aynhoe Park, including a piece from the Parthenon in Athens

Eclectic artefacts amassed on ‘a modern grand tour’ will be sold at Christie’s South Kensington on October 9, when James Perkins, owner of Aynhoe Park, sells more than 350 items to make room for more pieces in his constantly evolving collection. There’s everything from an armadillo-shell helmet (estimated at £600-£900) to a stuffed walrus head, plus furniture and photography, but pride of sale is the magnificent Classical plaster sculpture.Read the rest of this entry »